The New York City Bar said its state legislative priorities for 2013 include providing adequate funding for the courts and civil legal services, requiring the recording of police interrogations of criminal suspects, the sealing of criminal records of some youthful offenders and giving judges more discretion to impose probationary sentences.
The group also affirmed its support for ending discrimination against women in the workplace and elsewhere based on pregnancy and for the approval of audiovisual coverage of court proceedings. During his State of the Judiciary address this month, Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman proposed returning cameras to New York courts for the first time since a law allowing their limited use expired in 1997 (NYLJ, Feb. 6).
The city bar also would "modernize" the state's Uniform Commercial Code; amend the Human Rights Law to provide clarity and consistency in the definition and treatment of guide, hearing and service dogs; legalize medical marijuana; and protect consumers from unlawful and predatory debt collection/settlement practices.
